Family Album

Family vacation in the United Arab Emirates

Our community of over 11,000 real families and travelers (Family Trippers) is very active. We always have interesting tips and itineraries. And best of all: from family to family

Text and photos by Sabrina Grunwald

Hello travelers! We spent our family vacation in January in the United Arab Emirates and since I got some tips here, I came to thank and share our experience. The trip exceeded all our expectations! It was a wonderful experience to get to know a culture so different from ours, understand the local customs, and experience the meeting of the modern with the ancient, which enchanted us so much. My children are 9 and 11 years old and they loved the trip!

Our Roadmap

We stayed for 2 weeks and split our accommodation across 4 different hotels, but it could have been just 3.

We spent 5 days at Rove City Walk: a hotel with good value for money, interconnected rooms, and a good breakfast.
We stayed for 2 days in Abu Dhabi at a hotel in the city center which I wouldn’t recommend, as we made a mistake with the location. The center of Abu Dhabi is not a recommended place to stay and I only found out when I arrived there (laughs). Abu Dhabi is not as interesting as Dubai, but it has some must-visit places such as the Sheikh Zayed Mosque, which is beautiful and impressive. The Presidential Palace is also incredible. We went to the Ferrari Park, which is worth it for those who enjoy roller coasters. Otherwise, it may not be very attractive, and we went for a walk and dinner at Yas Bay and Yas Marina (Yas is the island in Abu Dhabi where Ferrari, WB, Formula 1 circuit parks, etc. are located). Staying in Yas (near the parks) or Corniche, the beautiful part of Abu Dhabi, would have been better. It was a learning experience for us!
We spent 2 days at Atlantis the Palm in Dubai to have the experience of staying at this iconic hotel and to enjoy Aquaventure, which is amazing, and guests have access included in the daily rate.
We spent 6 days at Jumeirah Beach hotel, a resort within the complex where the Burj Al Arab and Souk Madinat Jumeirah are located.

We spent 2 days on a tour with @marianaguiadubai to show us both the modern and old city, and it was wonderful: she gave us a lesson on the history of the Emirates, local customs, took us to incredible places, and helped us get better oriented in the large regions of Dubai.

In the old city of Dubai, I recommend stopping by Yousef’s shop, an Iranian who learned to speak Portuguese and is very friendly! It’s located in the Spice Souk. It’s guaranteed fun to enter his shop and do some shopping. He knows everything about Brazil, makes jokes, and greets tourists with unparalleled joy! Not to mention that he has the best dates and cinnamon chocolate that we’ve ever had.

advertising

The attractions we love

In the Old Dubai district: Spice Souk, Old Souk, abra ride across the canal and historic Al Fahid district. All with the guide telling us how they lived, how the market worked, what life was like there before the discovery of oil…

In the new city, we visited the Museum of the Future, The Frame (very worth going up), Dubai Mall (largest in the world), The View at the Palm, Marina, Blue Waters (where the largest Ferris wheel in the world is located) and the Burj Khalifa, which we enjoyed from up there with a view of the city and down below, day and night. Underneath the Burj there is a fountain show with lights and really cool music, we love it. Free tour, well worth it. We went to Miracle Garden too, the kids enjoyed the tour seeing the huge sculptures made of flowers (there’s a plane, a castle, etc).

We passed through Sharjah, another emirate next to Dubai, which has a great incentive to culture and education from the government, there are many beautiful and interesting things to see there!

The most interesting experience we had was the desert tour. In addition to being beautiful, we saw what Bedouin life was like in the old days, we walked through the desert, rode a camel and had dinner in a Bedouin camp, delicious Arabic food. It was amazing. We did it with Platinum Heritage (there are many options for companies that do).

I thought we would have a hard time with food, but that was not the case. Dubai is a very “international” city: 80% of the population is foreign, so there is food from all over the world. Even a Brazilian steakhouse (expensive, but it’s available). There are Brazilians making feijoada and delivering it to the hotel, if you want too.

We took a taxi the whole time because there you need the PID to rent a car and I only realized that 2 days before boarding (more laughter). But that wasn’t a problem because it’s very easy to order a taxi anywhere (by downloading the app) and the taxi fare is cheap. We didn’t take the subway, but we saw that it’s excellent and brand new, it works very well.

Sabrina Grunwald Forte is a psychologist, loves to travel with her family and is part of our Family Trippers Community, where she always shares her tips and trips.